Albert Destrade had no shot in Survivor final

December 18, 2011|TV Plus blog

The move that kept Albert Destrade in “Survivor: South Pacific” doomed any chance he had to win it.

Albert, the baseball coach at Plantation High, accepted the immunity necklace from a gullible Brandon Hantz on Wednesday’s episode, then refused to return it when Brandon was in jeopardy. Brandon was blindsided and evicted from the island.

The remaining players seemed dismayed with Albert. Sophie Clarke, a 22-year-old student, who wound up winning the $1 million prize, said on Sunday’s show, “Not giving back the necklace seemed to be a real cowardly move.”

Sophie pulled six of the nine votes. Colorful, psycho babbling Benjamin “Coach” Wade, playing the game for the third time, got the other three.

In Albert’s defense, if he had returned the necklace to Brandon, he would have been voted out and never would have made it the final three.

I feel sorry for Brandon, a troubled young man who appears to come from a really screwed up family. Brandon said he went into the game to restore the family name after his uncle, Russell Hantz, played ruthlessly and without scruples twice.

Brandon, who wears his strong religious beliefs on his sleeve, gave Albert the necklace as a show of fellowship after Albert sought Christian forgiveness from him for going against him.

Brandon’s family, who apparently are more like Russell than Brandon, declined to come to Sunday’s live finale with him because of what he did. Russell was there–he would go anywhere to be the center of attention on TV–and he berated Brandon for thinking anyone had to make up for his rude, crude, socially unacceptable behavior.

Ozzy Lusth, probably the fiercest challenge competitor the series has seen, was voted the $100,000 reward as the player of the season.

Ozzy spent almost half his time in the game on “Redemption Island,” outdueling rival after rival to return to the game in the round of five. He promptly won an immunity challenge to make the final four. But he was unable to solve a complicated puzzle that would have put him in the final three and was voted out. Sophie won that challenge to make it to the jury round.

Had Ozzy solved the puzzle, he would have won the $1 miliion, according to a show of hands by the jury.

Plantation High still has a chance to have a big winner on reality TV this week. Melanie Amaro, who graduated from the school in 2010, is in the final three of “The X Factor.” She will sing for a $5 million recording contract Wednesday and learn the results on Thursday.

Did the jury do the right thing?

Also, Jeff Probst suggested a future “Survivor” ought to pit Russell Hantz in one tribe against Brandon Hantz in another. He seemed to be kidding but you never know. It’s unlikely to happen in this season’s second edition, since that has already been filmed.